[Rxtx] loopback puzzle

[Andre-John Mas]

Dr. Stephen Judd wrote:
>
> AH!  great.
> So my mental model was reasonable, but ahead of its time.
> Now how do I adjust my mental image? Does rebooting the machine
> change anything? How do I get to those new ports?!
> sj

In most modern operating systems a reboot should not be necessary to recognise these ports, especially if the ports correspond to a USB device. The logic here is that USB devices are usually managed in 'user-space', with the kernel only providing the link.

For the reasons mentioned above a restart of the application is
enough to see the new ports. Using Bluetooth GPS and USB serial
ports myself with MacOS X and Windows XP shows that this is
indeed the case. Where I have issues is trying to add two serial
adaptors under Windows XP, though I am not sure whether it is an
WinXP issue or the driver which can't support two devices with the
same manufacturer/device id ( in my case FT232BM ).

Changing the Java Comm API to be dynamic would reduce the need
even for an applicationr restart - I don't talk about eliminating,
since there are drivers out there that have strange requirements.

Andre